From Pine View Farm

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A Tune for the Times 0

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The Disinformation Superhighway 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, Vanessa LoBue takes a look at how dis- and misinformation spread on the disinformation superhighway. She notes that researchers have determined the following:

First, they* found that fake news stories were 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than real news stories. Second, they found that it took real news stories 6 times as long to reach 1,500 people as fake ones (Vosoughi et al., 2018). This makes us all incredibly susceptible to believing fake news stories simply by the fact that we’re more likely to hear them, and we typically don’t hear them just once.

She goes on to offer some techniques to avoid falling for fabrications.

I commend her article as a timely read in this disinformation age.

___________________

*Citations at the link.

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A Trumped Up Case 0

At the Washington Monthly, former federal prosecutor James D. Zirin argues that

(i)f there was ever a textbook case of selective prosecution, the Justice Department investigation of New York Attorney General Letitia James appears to be it.

Follow the link for his reasoning.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

It seems that some “responsible gun owners” saw fit to celebrate their Mother’s Day family restaurant outings by discharging their pointers of politeness at each other.

We are a broken society.

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A Man-Boy and His Toy Box 0

Or you can read the transcript.

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Fantasy World 0

Yes, Virginia, there is an alternate universe.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Another woman’s story.

For the life of me, I can’t see anything behind this but racism, bigotry, and mean for the sake of mean.

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QOTD 0

Cicero:

Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law.

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Dolly Parting, Reprise 0

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Intellectually enhancing? If you buy that, I got a bridge in Brooklyn that’s for sale.

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A Notion of Immigrants 0

Lady Liberty atop her pedestal which reads

Click to view the original image.

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Vaccine Nation on the Disinformation Superhighway 0

In an article at AL.com, Nicole K. Reh, who is on the path to earning a medical degree, writes about how “social” media is endangering persons’ health; she focuses on the recent measles outbreaks and the anti-VAXX lies that have fueled them.

One interesting frightening statistic that she cites particularly caught my eye:

A 2024 Stanford study found that 49% of TikTok health videos were inaccurate, and 14% were potentially harmful.

The entire piece is worth a read, and, remember, “social” media isn’t.

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A Notion of Immigrants Meets the Rule of Lawless 0

Shorter Steven Miller: Constitutional rights? We don’t care about no Constitutional rights.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Yet another “responsible gun owner” performs a random act of politeness.

We are a broken society.

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An Ode to Greased Palms 0

QOTD 0

Thomas Babington Macaulay:

The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.

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And Now for a Musical Interlude 0

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“The Response Generator” 0

Yastreblyansky parses the pattern in the president’s prattle.

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The Crypto Gang 0

Title:  The Trump Gang--Eric, Don Jr., and Jared.  Image:  The Trump gang as wild west outlaws robbing a stage coach driven by Uncle Sam, who says to them,

Click to view the original image.

Also, speaking of the crypto con . . . .

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A Woke Pope? 0

Thom explains why the Trumpettes don’t like the new Pope.

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